Corporations that achieve high customer retention and high
customer profitability aim for:The right product (or service),
to the right customer, at the right price, at the right time,
through the right channel, to satisfy the customer's need or
desire. Information Technology—in the form of sophisticated
databases fed by electronic commerce, point-of-sale devices,
ATMs, and other customer touch points—is changing the roles of
marketing and managing customers. Information and knowledge
bases abound and are being leveraged to drive new profitability
and manage changing relationships with customers. The creation
of knowledge bases, sometimes called data warehouses or Info-
Structures, provides profitable opportunities for business
managers to define and analyze their customers' behavior to
develop and better manage short- and long-term relationships.